- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Container plantings allow you to have a small garden wherever you want.

Today we are planting one.

Also, in the humid summer, tomatoes are susceptible to blight.

Today we're gonna talk about when and what to spray to keep the blight at bay.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is a horticulturist.

And Mr.

D will be joining me later.

Alright, Joellen.

Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- Container.

- Yes.

We got a container.

- I can't wait to see you do this, right?

- Yeah.

We're gonna plant a container today.

- Okay.

All right.

- And containers, you can plant in anything as long as it holds soil.

Most important thing you need to remember is drainage.

- Oh, okay.

I got it.

- Make sure you have a hole- - All right, and it does.

- For drainage.

It has a hole.

And I happen to have some clay pot shards.

I'm putting this over the hole so the soil won't go down through it.

- Okay.

- So I like to use pine needles in the bottom before I put soil in.

I don't know why, a little bit of drainage issue.

- Okay.

That's interesting.

I've never heard that before.

- And sometimes people use pine cones.

And I have just grounded-up straw and pine cones and used it at the bottom.

Again, another layer for drainage in the bottom of the pot and to keep the soil at bay from going into the drainage hole.

- Oh, so it holds the soil in place?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

I got you.

- And, next, we're gonna put soil in.

That is a huge debate.

What type of soil?

How much much soil?

Everything.

I usually try to get something that's similar to, I don't use potting soil.

Potting soil, to me, is too light, and it dries out.

And when it dries out, it's hard to rewater again.

So I like to just use some type of composted material in a container.

And I have here, this is garden soil for in-use ground.

But this is good, that means that it'll have a good mix of compost for our container.

So I'll let you pour that in.

- Okay, I'll pour that in.

And we're gonna pour all of it, right?

- Pour it all in.

- Okay.

All right, there you go.

Looks good.

- Mm-hmm.

And there's a controversy about this, but I like to use actual soil.

- Like soil from the ground?

- From the ground.

This happens to come out of my garden.

I figure the soil that's in my garden is pretty good, and there's no diseases or anything in it.

So I like to add actual soil with the containerized soil.

- Okay, what kind of ratio are we talking about?

You just pour it all in there or just a little bit at a time?

- I'd like to do about 20%.

- Okay.

- And I don't have a whole lot in here, so it's probably gonna be just about right.

- Okay.

- I do that.

And then, you know, there's roots and things in here.

Again, compost, it's soil.

So I'm just gonna incorporate this in the root zone.

I don't have to get it all the way down to the bottom, 'cause I just want it where the plants are gonna grow.

Now, I think we might need just- - Need a little bit more?

- A little bit more.

- Okay, I'll get that to top it up.

- Finish it out.

- All right.

So how far below the rim does this have to be?

- Well, I'm gonna put plants in here.

So we may end up having too much soil in here.

But you don't wanna put it all the way up to the top, because, as you plant plants, it'll raise the soil up.

- Okay.

Right.

- And you're not trying to bury all the plants in here.

- Okay.

- Next thing I like to use, this particular site, even though it's shady now, will get the afternoon and evening sun, so it's a very hot place.

And so I like to use soil-moist polymers.

I just want them in the top root zone.

I don't want them everywhere in it.

So that should be.

- That's interesting.

- These, they expand 10 times and they hold water, and have more water than available once you rewet them every time you water for the roots to have, and you can spread out your watering of your container.

- Okay, so it holds a lot of moisture?

- Holds the moisture for it.

- Got you.

Got you.

- But, as you see, they disappear.

- Yeah, they do.

- So the first thing, when it comes to selecting your plants, you gotta think of the design principles, texture, color.

You need to have different textures of your plants, like a coarse texture, a fine texture, a medium texture.

And then, of course, the container "trifecta" of the thriller plant, the big eye-catching plant, the spillers, things that go over the side, and then everything that fills in between.

- The fillers.

Okay.

- Yeah.

- I got it.

- So we've got that today.

And I'm trying new plants for me.

- Oh, we're trying something new.

All right.

All right, what do we have, what do we have?

- This is a variegated banana of some type.

And you see the roots are really good in it.

- Oh, nice.

- I don't have to do anything- - It's well fertilized.

- But just plant it.

- Okay.

- It's well fertilized.

And since this is against a wall, I'm not gonna put it in the middle, I'm gonna put it at the back because there's nothing behind the wall.

And we want to plant this at the same level of depth that it is right here.

I'm not gonna cover this with soil.

And it does not need it any deeper than the soil in the container, and that goes for everything we plant in here.

- So we don't have to do anything to the root ball itself?

- No.

And, as you'll notice, we've got soil up here.

We've gotta make room for everything else we're gonna plant, so that will be the new soil level.

- Okay.

- And then, I have my spillers.

This is a Marguerite sweet potato vine.

- Okay.

- This is a dwarf one.

I think it's Caroline or something.

So it's not gonna go crazy.

But by the end of the summer, it will spill over the container.

So I will plant it, just look at my depth and plant it the same- - Mm-hmm, I see it.

- The same depth that it is.

And then, I also have a new plant for me.

A heuchera, coral bells, and it's yellow to go with the sweet potato vine.

I've never put this in a container before, so- - We're try it out and see.

- We're gonna try this and see.

- Gonna try it and see.

- Lot of new firsts for me here.

So I'm going to put this right here.

This is, again, a new plant for me.

This is Iresine.

It happens to have a Coleus that I- - Yeah, this is Coleus.

- Broke off from something else I planted, and I happened to just stick it in there, and it's rooted, so I'll take that off- We're not gonna put it in here.

- There's two for one.

- But this is Iresine, and I've never used Iresines before.

- Okay.

- But we shall see how they do.

And let me get this Coleus off of it and put him back in the pot to be planted somewhere else.

And I did cut the top of it out, 'cause it was not bushing and I didn't like that.

But you see when I cut the top off, which is the apical dominance was cut, look at all these side shoots that are coming out.

- So where did you cut it?

Can you say it again?

- I cut just at the tip.

- So you cut it right at the tip?

Okay.

- Right at the tip.

I cut the tip off.

- And it just branched off?

Okay.

- And now it's branching out.

- It's nice.

So we shall see how this grows.

I don't know.

I do not know.

It's something new.

- It's trial container planting.

We're gonna find out, right?

- Yep.

We are going to find out.

We're gonna put a couple more of these in.

But I'm gonna put the other Iresine right here.

And then, I've got another spiller, which is a Wave petunia.

- Wave.

Yeah.

- I just like this color.

I thought it went well with everything.

- I like petunias anyway.

Looking nice.

- I'm gonna put it up in front here.

Then I have some pink begonias- - Yeah, those are pretty.

- That I thought I would fill in with.

- Okay.

No, you're fine.

- We'll be able to get both of these in with plenty of room.

- So we're looking good on the soil?

We don't need any more soil?

- I think we're gonna need just a little bit of soil.

- Just a little bit?

Okay.

- Here.

- Can you dig it in?

- I'm just gonna dig in here.

Just add a little bit of soil in here.

- Is that good?

- I'm gonna need one more just to make sure we got enough.

- Okay.

- I'd rather add soil than have to take it away and have it spill all over the place.

- I would agree with that.

- So I like to do a little bit at a time, just a little bit in between these two and I think we're good.

Now, before we put some mulch on the top, I'm gonna put some slow-release fertilizer.

- So we can actually use slow-release fertilizers in pots?

- Yes.

- What?

In containers, really?

Okay.

- Yes.

I like it to fertilize for a while.

It helps to get us started.

- It is dusty.

- All right, now, the only thing that's left is some mulch.

And I like to put mulch in all the containers, and there's so many different kinds.

You can use any kind you want.

- Sure.

- I have started liking pine needles.

- Yeah.

- I think when you water it, then it hits the pine needles, and it disperses the water and you don't get holes in the pot.

- I can see that.

- So I've started liking... And it's free.

- And it's free.

Right.

- Because I have pine trees.

So I have been starting to use pine needles.

- I've never really seen anybody put mulch in a container before, so this is actually new for me.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah, I hadn't seen that.

- Mulching containers, it helps keep moisture in the pot, looks nice, and I think it helps break up the water when you're watering it.

- Wow.

- The last thing we need to do is water it, and I have some water.

- Okay.

- Since our soil was moist and our plants were moist, I will just probably water just with this one gallon.

- Sure.

- And it might come out the bottom, it might not.

But I'll probably have to water it again in the next day or two.

You have to keep checking it.

- Yeah.

'Cause this will be sitting out in the full sun.

- It will be in the full sun and it's gotta establish.

And the best way that I know how to tell if it's moist or not is with my own hands.

I will just stick my hand down in here and see if it's moist.

If it is, then I won't water it.

If it's a little dry, then I will water it.

- Okay.

- And then, it'll get established, and we'll see how it does this summer.

- We're gonna definitely see.

I'm curious to see what this banana's gonna look like.

- Banana and Iresine.

- You know, once we get it out in the full sun, right?

- I mean, I've just never put any of this kind of stuff together.

But they all seem to like the same kind of moisture level and sunlight.

So that's the most important thing when you're picking out plants, too, besides the texture and the color.

- All right, well, we shall see.

Thank you for the demonstration.

- Thank you.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - Here we have a sage plant.

This particular cultivar we're looking at has a solid green leaf, but there are variegated cultivars.

So some other things this plant has going for it, very highly aromatic leaves.

I mean, it smells so delicious.

Another unique thing about this plant is that it's in bloom right now.

You can see it has a beautiful purple bloom.

And so this plant, you know, really isn't valued highly for its bloom, but it does have a gorgeous purple bloom in the summertime.

Another neat thing about this plant is that it's in the same family as salvias and mints.

And you can tell because when you roll this newest growth, this soft, tender growth in your fingers, the stem is four-sided, and that's an indicator that it falls into that family.

As far as mature plant size, we're probably looking at somewhere between, you know, 18 and 24 inches tall, and it has more of a sprawling habit.

Sage plants don't really have any prominent pests or diseases of note.

But we can tell on this particular plant, I'm gonna show you a little bit of feeding damage that we've had from probably white flies.

Any kind of insect that has the piercing-type mouthparts could create this type of feeding pattern that we call stippling.

But, again, not a huge pest.

Nothing that's going to warrant control.

So a couple notes about siting in the garden.

This plant really loves full sun and excellent drainage in the soil, okay?

We don't wanna put this anywhere that's a low-lying area, that collects water, or has a heavy soil structure, like a very heavy clay.

And it also helps this plant overwinter, it is a perennial, so it's gonna come back for you year after year in the garden as long as it has good drainage and full-sun site conditions.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, Mr.

D. This is the Mid-South, we love our tomatoes, but tomatoes we know have many problems.

- They do.

They do.

- We need a spray schedule for our tomatoes.

Can you help us out?

- I can, I can.

I mean, UT and the "Redbook" can also help you out.

The most common problem on tomatoes in our high-humidity environment is blight.

And late blight is the number one disease problem on tomatoes in our area.

And it occurs early in the state.

- Yeah, it comes early.

- Yeah, I don't know why they call it late blight.

But the best way to take care of that is to put your tomatoes on a spray schedule.

You need to remember, for the most part, fungicides, especially vegetable fungicides that are approved on vegetables, are preventative in nature only.

So if you wait until you see the disease, then you're behind in the game, because the fungicides that we put out there on vegetables will not treat a problem.

They simply will prevent it from spreading.

So if you wanna prevent tomato disease problems, start spraying early.

Spray, during dry conditions, every 14 days with either chlorothalonil or mancozeb.

If it's during rainy conditions, if you haven't gotten more than a two-inch rain, then still you can spray about every seven days.

If it rains more than two inches, you assume it washed the fungicide off.

Now, if you apply the fungicide today and it rains tomorrow, a half-inch rain, just stick on the 7-day schedule provided that the fungicide had time to dry on the plant.

Now, if you get out there and spray right now and 15 minutes later you get a half-inch rain, then your fungicide's washed off.

So it needs to dry on the leaves before it's rainfast.

During dry conditions, if we don't get a lot of rain, you can spread that length of time out to 14 days, every two weeks.

And I recommend mixing the chemistry, you know, mentioned mancozeb and chlorothalonil, get both of those products, and then I would spray one of them one week and the other one the next week, and just alternate them.

- Right.

- That way you will hopefully prevent resistance building up with that fungus.

But do that.

If you start to see some insects causing a problem there, tomato hornworms or something like that, simply include some Bt in that same spray mixture, you know, and you can mix- - So you can do that?

- You can mix the fungicide with the insecticides.

Or if you don't have any insect problems, just strictly go with the fungicides.

But if you do that and you do that up until frost, you should have good homegrown tomatoes until that time.

- So you would start with the application with the fungicides when?

- Now.

- Now.

- Now, because the disease pressure is already out there.

- Right.

- I would start now.

I wouldn't wait until I see the disease, you know, because then you're behind.

Stay ahead of the game with fungicides.

- And you have to make sure you get good coverage though, I mean, talk about that.

- You gotta have good coverage.

You need to spray to the point of runoff.

You don't have to drench the plant and let it run off the plant, but spray to just before that happens.

And that's like tightening a bolt to like 1/4 of an inch before it breaks.

You know, it's really kind of hard to figure out exactly how to do that.

But spray just to the point of runoff.

Make sure you direct your spray to the underside of the leaves, and below the plant, you've gotta get really good coverage.

So with these small tomato plants, that's real easy to do when they're real small.

As they get larger, then you've gotta, it'll take more product, and it'll take a little bit more time to make sure that you, you know, get good coverage.

But, you know, make sure you have good coverage with it.

It's just like applying a, it's a prophylactic treatment, it's like a raincoat.

And any area of that leaf that's not protected is susceptible, most of these fungus diseases are caused by wind-deposited spores.

And if spore lands on a fungicide-treated leaf, it's gonna die.

But if it lands on a leaf that doesn't have any fungicide on it, you know, it will start spreading.

- Good analogy.

- Yeah.

Like I said earlier, if you get to the point where you've got some disease anyway, if you're in a real rainy week or two and you've got some disease, just continue spraying and you will stop it from spreading to the new growth.

The leaves that are damaged will continue to be damaged, but it won't spread to your new growth.

And so don't get discouraged if you have a little disease pressure anyway.

But be faithful, 7 to 14 days, mancozeb, chlorothalonil, a combination of those, and follow the label directions.

Always follow the label directions, and wash your tomatoes real good when you, you know, before you eat them.

- Yes.

When is the best time to spray the fungicide?

'Cause I'm sure somebody's thinking about that.

- I would say, you wanna make sure the fungicide dries on the plant.

So probably the worst time to spray would be late in the afternoon right before sundown, right at dark, or at night, because that plant will stay wet longer and fungal diseases like wet conditions.

So early in the day, middle of the day, you know, mid-afternoon, as long as that plant can dry after you apply the product, well, then you're in good shape.

- You wanna make sure it dries.

- You wanna make sure the plant can dry.

- Mr.

D, we appreciate this.

- Good deal.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - So if you're out in your garden this spring and summer and you notice some fine webbing over your plants, this could be a visual indicator that you have an infestation of spider mites.

Spider mites will feed on a wide variety of different types of plants in your landscape.

So here we can see that we have a cluster of really fine webbing at the tip of this branch.

And, on closer inspection, we found more webbing dispersed all throughout this plant.

So, again, this is your first visual indicator.

But if you wanna confirm the presence of this pest to make sure that they are still present and actively feeding before you institute any kind of control measures, one easy way to do that is with the white paper test.

So take a white piece of paper, put it close to your plant and give it a little shake.

Okay, so now that we've done the test and we can see that there are actual spider mites present on the plant, now is the time that we could shift gears and start thinking about control methods.

So I would start with looking at some cultural control options.

Obviously, this plant is already stressed, so we wanna focus on improving those growing conditions.

Then we could come in, if the infestation is not too heavy, we could certainly just prune out the places of the plant where we are seeing the heaviest loads.

Then we could give the rest of that plant a spray with a good, strong stream of water.

And then, from there, maybe we would look at some of our other chemical controls like insecticidal oils, soaps, things of that nature.

So those steps should help you take care of your spider mite infestation.

And, from there on, just keep an eye on it throughout the growing season.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Joellen, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are some great questions.

- Yes, they are.

- All right.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Every year dollar weed chokes out my grass by the end of summer.

What can I do to help my grass?"

And this is Ron.

He says, "Normally, the grass returns in the spring, but not this year."

And he says he's tried weed and feed last fall, but it did not help.

- Uh-huh.

- So dollar weed.

- Dollar weed.

- Is a problem.

- It's a big problem.

- It is a problem.

- Because if you leave any piece of it in the ground, it will come back.

I'm thinking a herbicide spray on it.

He's gonna have to, again, establish his lawn after he gets rid of it.

But I would think some type of herbicide would be the best way to get rid of it.

- So you'd be correct.

This could almost be my question, right?

'Cause I have a yard full of dollar weed.

And the reason why I have it is because I have poor drainage in my backyard.

Dollar weed loves poorly drained soils or wet soils, right?

So if you're gonna use a herbicide, three-way herbicide.

Three-way herbicide, you would do that in the spring.

Something that contains 2,4-D, mecoprop, right?

Dicamba, you know, is another one that's part of the three-way herbicide.

Read and follow the label on that, Mr.

Ron.

And establish a thick lawn, right, to choke out your dollar weed.

Or pennywort is the other name for it.

- Oh.

- Pennywort.

So, yeah, I think if you do that, I think you'd be fine.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, but it is a tough weed.

And fix your drainage issue, I should be talking to myself, right?

Fix your drainage issue.

That will help as well.

- Yeah, is there any way he can get it to not be so wet?

- Yeah.

Not so wet.

- Yeah.

- And, Mr.

Ron, if you figure that out, tell me.

I have the same issue.

All right, thank you for that question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get lilacs to last longer than a few days in a vase"?

And this is Anne from Rochester, New York.

So how can she do that?

- Well, you know, I used to love, living in Illinois, we had lilacs, they're beautiful.

- Really?

Okay.

- Gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

And she's right, they don't last very long.

But this is how you can help, you try to pick a flower that's only about 3/4 open.

So you're gonna have some buds on the end of it.

You bring it inside, it's gonna be woody.

You're going to smash the end of the stem.

- You smash the end?

- Smash it 'cause it gets more water inside.

And then, you put it in water with preservative, floral preservative.

And then, you take off all of the green leaves as much as you can.

- Okay, up the stem.

- Up the stem.

- Okay.

- And that should make it last two to three days.

[Chris laughs] It's not gonna be, it's not gonna be really long because they just don't do as well as cut flowers.

You don't really see them in the cut-flower industry because, well, they're beautiful outside and on the tree, but they don't always translate inside.

But now if you're having an event at your house and you want to have some flowers, it's gonna last long enough for that and give gorgeous fragrance inside your house.

- Hmm, so just think of it that way.

- It's still not gonna live very long.

But that's the only way I know of to extend the bloom as much as possible.

- Wow.

Okay.

You probably have to change the water out every day?

- I would think, and the floral preservative.

- Yeah.

Every day?

- Mm-hmm.

- All right.

There you have it, Ms.

Anne.

Sounds like some work.

- Some work.

- It sounds like work, but, yeah, we thank you for that question.

Joellen, fun, as always.

- It is.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- All right.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

To catch any of the past segments or rewatch anything from today's show, you can visit our YouTube channel @FamilyPlotGarden.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]